The Trans-Siberian Express, which runs between Beijing and Moscow, is the only safe way to travel across the mysterious Wastelands that cover what used to be a large portion of Eurasia and Central Asia. People who are less confident about the train’s protections would argue that there is no safe way across the Wastelands, and that the only sensible thing to do would be to stick firmly to the side of the walls where animals don’t spontaneously transform into monsters, the plants don’t try to eat everything, and the rocks don’t stare. In Sarah Brooks’s magical novel, The Cautious Traveller’s Guide to the Wastelands, we ride the express alongside a trio of characters with more in mind than just getting from China to Russia.
Marya Petrovna is travelling with ulterior motives and under a false name. She has an ax to grind with the Trans-Siberian company. A terrible disaster struck the last journey across the Wastelands and the company placed all the blame on Marya’s father, a glassmaker who had worked for them for years. With her father dead and her family in disgrace, Marya wants answers. Meanwhile, scientist Henry Grey is determined to redeem his tattered reputation by being the first person to bring back specimens from the Wastelands. No other expedition—apart from the ones that laid the tracks for the Express—has ever returned. All anyone knows about the Wastelands is that being exposed to the air, water, and dirt is either fatal or turns the exposed into something very, very different. Our last narrator is Weiwei. Weiwei was born on the train. Her mother, unfortunately, didn’t survive. The staff of the train raised her and, these days, she serves the passengers’ needs as a servant and steward.
There are hints that not all is right aboard the Trans-Siberian Express. Not only is no one talking about what happened on the last trip, but two representatives from the company are aboard to make sure that no one says anything that doesn’t conform to the official story. Marya has to use every ounce of cleverness to ask her questions and poke around in places she shouldn’t be. Henry has a better (he thinks) way to get what he wants: bribe an engineer. Weiwei notices everything going on around her. Her friends aboard the train are keeping things from her or behaving oddly. The captain of the train is hiding herself away. Worst of all, Weiwei discovers a stowaway, something that’s supposed to be impossible.
I love a book that begins with separate plots that collide with each other as characters accidentally work at cross purposes. Insert trainwreck metaphor here. This book delivers a wonderfully snarled pile-up of motivations and discoveries in an amazingly sinister but beautiful setting. I was as fascinated by the Wastelands as Henry and Marya were (even though I know that I would be too chicken to actually ride the Express). The climax of this book is deeply satisfying and bold, well worth the price of a ticket. Readers of fantasy that walks a little on the weird side will be delighted by this novel.